The 1724 Courthouse in Chester the oldest one in Penna. The building still stands on Ave. of the States. AKA Edgmont Ave. In the 1870's the original steeple was replaced with a large one with a clock. This picture from about 1910 shows how it looked. In the 1930's the steeple was taken down and replaced with how it originally was built.
NOTES: Need some help. Does any reader have or know where I can use a good quality overhead scanner? I have been using one in Swarthmore but it is now tied up for months. I have the opportunity to scan a number of atlases for my website and I'm looking for a scanner to do so. Please let me know.
keith106@rcn.com
WITCHES AND THEIR ART IN THIS COUNTY
A Noted Trial That Took Place Long Ago
The Witch of Ridley Creek
Mention is often made of a trial for witchcraft in Pennsylvania, but, except the mere mention of the matter, no further information is given. The record of the trial is found in Volume 1 of the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, in which all the proceedings of the Provincial council are recorded.
The two accused persons, old women, were Swedes, Margaret
Mattson, wife of Noel Mattson, and Yeshro Hendrickson, wife of Hendrick
Jacobson. While both persons were called
before the Council, the first only seems to have stood a regular trial. Margaret Mattson lived on a plantation owned
by her husband on the Delaware River, on the west side of Crum Creek, in Ridley
Township, now Delaware County. She was
long known in local legends as “The Witch of Ridley Creek.”
She was first brought before the Council on December 7,
1683, no provincial court having yet been organized in the colony, when her
trial was set for December 27. On that
day the accused appeared in the city of Philadelphia before William Penn, his Attorney
General, a grand jury of twenty-one persons, all English apparently, and a
petit jury of twelve persons, one of whom Albertus Hendrickson, was a
Swede. One of the Council Lassse Cock
was a Swede. The grand jury brought in a
true bill, reporting in the afternoon.
The indictment was then read to the accused. She pleaded not guilty, the petit jury was
empaneled, the trial held, the Governor charged the jury, which retired,
brought in a verdict, the prisoner was discharged, and THE WHILE BUSINESS WAS
CONCLUDED THAT SAME AFTERNOON SO FAR AS PENNSYLVANIA WAS CONCERNED, THE VERDICT
was as follows: “GUILTY OF HAVING THE
COMMON FAME OF A WITCH, BUT NOT GUILTY IN MANNER AND FORM AS SHE STANDS
ENDICTED.”
Nine years later, 1692, Massachusetts was for a whole
year shaken with most horrible trains for this imaginary offense, until no
person in that colony was safe from accusation, NINETEEN PERSONS WERE HUNG and
one pressed to death under heavy weights, while a great number suffered
intolerable imprisonment. The whole
population became infected with a craze concerning “witchcraft,” the shame of
which endures there to this day. In this
matter the sober Quaker reached a righteous conclusion much quicker than the
hasty Puritan.
SOME OF THE TESTIMONY – Henry Drystreet, attested, said
he was told 20 years ago that the prisoner at the bar was a Witch and that
several cows were bewitched by her; also, that James Saunderling’s mother told
him that she bewitched her cow, but afterwards said it was a mistake, and that
her cow should do well again, fir it was not her cow but another person’s that
should die.
Charles Ashcom attested, said that Anthony’s wife being
asked why she sold her cattle, was because her mother had bewitched them having
taken the witchcraft of Hendrick’s cattle, and put on their oxen; she might
keep but no other cattle, and also that one night the daughter of the prisoner
called him up hastily, and when he came she said there was a great light but
just before, and an old woman with a knife in her hand at the bad’s feet, and
therefore she cried out and desired Jno Symock to take away his calves or else
she would send them to hell.
The accused flatly denied all the allegations.
ASTROLOGERS AND NECROMANCERS – In 1695 John Roman and his
two sons, residing in Chichester, were reported to be students of astrology and
other forbidden mysteries. The public
tongue had so discussed the matter that on the tenth of the tenth month, 1695,
Concord Monthly Meeting of Friends gravely announced that “the study of these
sciences bring a vail over the understanding and that upon the life.” John Kingsman and William Hughes were ordered
to speak to the parties, and have them to attend at the next monthly
meeting. The offenders were seen and
stated that if it could be shown wherein it was wrong, they would desist from
further investigation in these arts. For
several months the matter was before the Concord Monthly Meeting without
resulting in suppressing the evil.
Extracts from the records of Concord Monthly Meeting
commencing September 11, 1695, are interesting:
“Some friends having a concern upon them concerning some young men who
came amongst friends to their meetings and following some arts which friends
thought not fit for such as profess truth to follow, viz., astrology and other
sciences, as Geomancy and Cliorvmancy and Necromancy, etc. It was debated and the sense of this meeting
is that the study of these sciences brings a vail over the understanding and a
death upon the life.
“And in the sense of the same, friends order Philip Roman
be spoken too to know whether he have dealt orderly with his two sons
concerning the same art; and that his two sons bespoke to come to the next
monthly meeting; “friends orders John Kingsman and William Hughes to speak to
Philip Roman and his two sons to appear at the next monthly.”
CONVICTED IN COURT – The ease finally reached a stage
through the report of the committee that Robert Roman was arrested, tried at
Chester for practicing the black art, was fined five pounds and the following
books were seized and burned; Hidon’s Temple of Wisdom, which teaches
Geomanycy, and Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft and Cornelios Agrippos teach
Necromancy.”
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